it's a time that we have a lot of things going on in terms of the president's foreign policy, particularly in the middle east and withdraw in afghanistan coming to the fore and you need someone in the pentagon doing this. it can be seen as a nuisance in that the president want to be talking about his agenda, which is the gun control, immigration, things that people can get done. you have, of course, this sequester and the ongoing issue of the spending situation and taxes. so i think these are the things that the president wants to be talking about. he's going to be on the road talking about gun control. so the question is, will he have to be talking about this to put the pressure on republicans to get moving on his appointees. >> i want to bring in congresswoman karen bass. >> good morning. >> what do you think the republican motivation is for delaying the nomination? >> i think senator mcclain was perfectly clear when he said that they are still mad when senator hagel gave testimony and was negative towards president bush. i think this is a vendetta. i think this is a holdover from the pa